Laflin Borough Council takes steps to save money

Laflin Borough officials Monday added to the workload of borough manager Barbara Fairchild by adding health care coordinator to her resume. Council had looked into a variety of ways to maintain the current health care services, and the net result was that they could save money by changing the way the health care services are administered. The options available were allowing Blue Cross to administer the program, which covers five employees, or placing the control in the hands of a consultant, or doing the work in house.

Doing the work in house would be around the same cost per year as using Blue Cross, but since Fairchild is one of those covered, council felt she would have more of an incentive to keep the costs lower than the health care organization would. The less the borough spends each year, the more it can carry over to defray the costs of the plan the following year, council noted.

Fairchild already handles garbage and sewer billing and grant writing in addition to her regular schedule, and if the work turns out to be too much, it can be handed back to Blue Cross, council noted.

The borough also saved several thousand dollars on its workmen’s compensation insurance for the coming year, as well as getting additional areas of coverage, council president Thomas Parry noted.

In other business, council asked solicitor Samuel Sanguedolce to look into whether another advertisement was needed to sell a truck cap for a Ford F-350. A previous advertisement had drawn no response, and the cost of advertising had almost reached the same point as the cap was selling for, councilman Paul Benderavich noted. Council asked the solicitor to look into whether donating the cap to another police department with a similar vehicle was a valid option. Council noted they would rather see the cap disposed off than simply allowed to be destroyed by weather and neglect in an outdoor storage area.

In a question related to the borough budget, council was asked whether financial figures reflected pension obligations for a former police officer. The borough had learned last year that its payments into the pension system had underfunded the officer’s pension, and top-up payments would need to be made for the next 14 years.

Council members confirmed in general terms that the revenue had been put in the general pension budget, although not specifically assigned an individual line-item. Because it fell into the broad area of a personnel issue, council questioned whether specific information could be given, especially considering that the individual raising the question was not the officer himself, or a legal representative.

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